Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/240

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170

��NOTES BY THE WAY.

��Master of the The Master of the Rolls in giving judgment said that the evidence, in his opinion, that Clifford's Inn was charged to a charit- able trust, was abundantly clear so clear, indeed, as to be beyond controversy. For these reasons the decision of Lord Justice Cozens- Hardy was perfectly right, and ought to be affirmed.

��judgment.

��CAXTON RECORD PRICE.

1902. Mar. 29. On Thursday, March 20th, 1902, Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sold what is probably the finest existing copy of ' The Ryal (or Royall) Book, or Book for a King,' printed by William Caxton at Westminster, 1487. Of the other recorded four perfect copies, one fetched in 1901 1,5501. ; the others are in public lib- raries. The copy sold on March 20th was at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877. The biddings rose to 1,800 guineas, after which the fight was between Mr. Quaritch and Messrs. B. F. Stevens, it being eventually knocked down to Mr. Quaritch for 2,2251.

��1902, April 6. Owens College Jubilee.

��Success of the College.

��The

AthencBiim

records its

coming of age,

��OWENS COLLEGE JUBILEE.

A complete history of the College down to 1886 has been written by Mr. Alderman Thompson, who has been associated with it from its earliest years, and who has always been among its most ardent promoters. To him I was indebted for much information concerning the College when compiling my book on the fifty years' work of The Athenceum. On the 12th of March, 1902, he had the satisfaction of handing the keys of the Whitworth Hall to the Prince of Wales.

The success of the College is now so complete that it is hard to realize the struggle it had for very hie in its early years. The Manchester Guardian in its leading article on the 9th of July, 1858, distinctly pronounced the College to be a failure ; and The Man- chester Examiner on the 20th of the same month stated that " the most that can be said of the College is that it is too good for us. . . . .The crowd rolls along Deansgate heedless of the proximity of Plato and Aristotle." Owens College, however, was not to be a failure, thanks to the undaunted zeal of the men associated with it. The Athenceum of the 19th of October, 1872, records that " its coming of age has been properly signalized by its change from a private to a public institution by special Act of Parliament ; the old trustees have abolished themselves in favour of forty-two governors .... Thus has the simple scheme of the executors of Mr. Owens developed in twenty-one years into an institution possessing most of the elements of a university."

�� �